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Policing prescription drug abuse a difficult task

By AMBER SOUTH, Staff writer

Updated:
10/06/2012 09:09:25 PM EDT

Dealing with the abuse of prescription drugs is not as simple as hunting down the suspects, doing a field test for cocaine and locking up the bad guys.
"It's a lot different now," said Craig LeCadre, senior supervisory special agent with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office. "It's a lot more complicated now. It does cause a lot of headaches."

Officers making a traffic stop cannot assume that a person with a pocketful of pills is a dealer. It could be someone possessing his or her medicine without a prescription. The information is protected by the federal health privacy law. The Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation has access to general information about prescriptions and can help patrolmen who have a hunch that a suspect possesses illicit pills.

"You need to know the process to keep it all above board," LeCadre said. "It's a very touchy issue. From our standpoint it's a problem."

Another problem: The drugs are virtually everywhere.

Sales of prescribed pain killers increased fourfold from 1999 to 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Fatal overdoses tripled.

Friends share medications. Kids take the remainder of a parent's prescription from a long-ago back surgery, or steal a pill or two from grandma's medicine cabinet.

One of the biggest dangers associated with prescription drugs is mixing several at once and mixing them with alcohol and/or illicit street drugs like cocaine, according to Matthew Lynch, drug recognition expert with Chambersburg Police Department.

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A medication for depression mixed with alcohol can deepen the effects of each, he said. A person may have a relatively low blood alcohol concentration, but appear extremely intoxicated because he or she has also taken depressant medications.

Some users may also combine these drugs in order to cut out an undesired side effect from the prescription, Lynch said. The user of a narcotic opiate pill may use cocaine because of the drowsiness the opiate can cause.

"This becomes a very dangerous cat-and-mouse game, which sometimes will result in an overdose," he said.

Prescription medication abuse can lead to other criminal activities like burglary, robbery and drug dealing. According to Chambersburg Police Chief David Arnold, most burglaries and thefts that his department deals with involve people with a drug problem.

"Those incidents are increasing slowly," he said.

As their addictions deepen, users need more money for drugs and turn to criminal activity, Lynch said. Some narcotic pills can sell for $30 each or more on the street. Users far enough along in their prescription drug habit could spend $600 a day or more to support their habit.

High prices can then lead a user to try heroin, which is significantly cheaper but more dangerous.

"Once they become addicted to heroin then there is little chance to be rehabilitated, and the drug consumes their life to the point where it becomes difficult (for them) to be a functional member of society," Lynch said.

Prescription medications make drug dealers out of people who sell their pills in order to pay their bills, Lynch said. This makes it relatively easy for users to get pills to satisfy their habits. People with prescriptions also may trade their pills to get the kind they want to use.

"There are people who are arrested for DUI due to these pills and people who are arrested for possessing the pills when they are found in their possession illegally," Lynch said.

Chambersburg Police have seen people using fake prescriptions to get their medications. While some cases are local, more involve people driving through the area before or after picking up medications in another state, Lynch said.

Chambersburg police also have run into a number of cases in which a person makes a false report of his or her medications being stolen, for the purpose of getting a doctor to prescribe more.

"This rarely works out for them, and they face criminal charges for false reports by attempting such," Lynch said.

Some people also attempt to get pills by fooling emergency room physicians. According to Lynch, several people regularly visit the ER just to get pain medication and will cause disturbances to persuade doctors they need it.

"This makes one wonder how much is spent by health care providers and insurers who foot the bill for ER visits and prescriptions being filled only to be sold back on the streets illicitly," he said.